April Fool's: Skyship Admiral Takes Game Desiger Hostage!

April Fools: BREAKING NEWS: Famous Admiral Appears in Washington, Takes Game Designer Hostage RENTON, Washington — A naval officer who was declared dead when his legendary vessel crashed exactly seven years ago today made a sudden and unexpected reappearance in Renton, WA. Witnesses reported a series of strange flashing lights culminating in a group of people in strange clothing appearing in the middle of a car park.

Art by Terry Dykstra, Colorized by Havard

 “It was like they teleported in from some alternate dimension or something, man!” remarked a bystander named Chris. The group made their way to local gaming company, Wizards of the Coast, where they walked into the building and began making demands. The leader, apparently the captain of a “sky-ship”, demanded to see the lead designer of famous role playing game DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (R). “In the name of her Imperial Majesty, I insist that you bring this Mr. Mearls to me this instant!” he was heard to say, brandishing a strange stick in one hand in a strangely hypnotic manner, the feather in his outlandish hat waving about his head. To the shock of everyone present, the receptionist proceeded to summon Mr. Mearls, who appeared in short order wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “Unearthed Arcana: The Truth is Out There!”

 From there, the situation escalated quickly. The interloper’s leader announced that he was “an admiral of Her Imperial Fleet”, and began to accuse Mr. Mearls of collaborating in the destruction and looting of his “sky-ship”. “It was your company’s employee, a Mr. Robert J. Schwalb, who reported that my ship was crashed — my crew dead! — was it not?!” When Mr. Mearls informed him that Mr. Schalb no longer worked for the company, and was not there, the group became agitated. A large-looking man wearing a tiger-like mask (which looked amazingly real) stepped forward and grabbed poor Mr. Mearls, and amid shouts of “The Princess will have vengeance!” the whole group disappeared in a cloud of coloured smoke. The current whereabouts of these people and the unfortunate Mr. Mearls is unknown. Police have interviewed witnesses, but many find the whole situation to be inherently unbelievable.

 In other news, scientists today discovered hitherto unknown tunnels leading deep into the interior of the Earth. "We never would have believed these tunnels could go this deep!" the lead scientist told reporters. "Ordinarily the conditions beneath the ground would make such deep tunnels impossible. And yet, here they are."




Edit:
For the record, the text linked above was written by my good friend Thorf. Were were discussing the idea of an April Fool's Joke that was a little retort to the pretty poor taste joke WotC played on Mystara's expense back in 2012 which is linked in the article. Thorf suggested I post the text on my blog.




-Havard

X5 Temple of Death One of the Best D&D Adventures Says 5E Designer Robert J Schwalb

The classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure X5 Temple of Death is getting renewed interest. Published in 1983 for the Frank Mentzer BECMI  "Red Box" edition of the world's most famous roleplaying game and set in the world of Mystara, this adventure was written by David "Zeb" Cook as a sequel to X4 Master of the Desert Nomads (Also by Cook). The series would later be concluded in X10 Red Arrow Black Shield by Michael S. Dobson. Beautifully illustrated by Timothy Truman, the module explored a mysterious temple in the lands of Sind and also introduced new monsters such as Dusanu, Genoid, Mujina, Malfera and Spectral Hounds.

Following a reacent discussion at The Piazza, which also spun into that RPG forum's Facebook Page, Robert J. Schwalb was among those giving the adventure praise:

In addition to being one of the designers on the team that created the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Schwalb is also the publishing his own RPG Shadow of the Demon Lord. Check it out! :)


As a fan of BECMI D&D and Mystara, it is always nice to see the adventures of that era get more recognition. I am looking foward to seeing X1 Isle of Dread (the original Mystara advenure) return in a collection from Goodman Games next year. Could we see the Desert Nomad Series  further down the line?



-Havard

Piazza Member to design 5E.

Monte Cook

Although he is better known for other things such as being one of the main designers behind 3E and his previous work for TSR and ICE, Monte Cook also has a "shady" past as a member of the Piazza. ;) I remember being very happy when the designer of Glantri: Kingdom of Magic signed up to the forum to talk about Mystara with us. G:KoM was perhaps not the best recieved Mystara product, but that had more to do with excecutive decisions than with what Monte did with the assignment given to him.

Robert J Schwalb

Another excellent RPG designer on the 5E design team, Robert J Schwalb, also has a connection to the community. He has made a long list of classic D&D monster conversions to 3E which all appear on the Vaults of Pandius.

I see alot of optimism concerting 5E even on old school gamer discussion boards. Having these two excellent designers on the team definately cannot hurt! :)


-Havard



Image Sources
Monte Cook
Robert Schwalb